Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The latest and fast growing trend of cyber crime against the unsuspecting user of a Windows PC is a new breed of malware, so called PuP programs (Potentially Unwanted Program).

These programs technically are not viruses; that is why anti virus programs don't find them - although there are some special programs for geeks and technicians that can clean this stuff from your computer.

You can easily check your computer for at least a few the most commonly encountered names.

Open the Control Panel

Set "View by" in the right top corner to Small Icons and

Open Programs and Features

You find names of PuPs that I have encountered in this list. Warning: The list is long, by it's very nature incomplete and it keeps growing almost every week. Please be aware that spelling, capitalization, prepended or appended numbers or syllables and inserted or omitted spaces are common and still denote the "main offender" as worthy of removal.

The somewhat good news: Many of these pieces of trouble can be uninstalled, that is removed, from right there in the Programs and Features window where you just found them.

The really BAD news: Even if you uninstall them successfully there will be leftovers in web browsers and other important locations in the operating system.; especially Google Chrome seems to be likely to retain some of that. These leftover entries can be numerous, affect functioning of web browser(s) and significantly hamper the computer; they can onlybe removed with some specially written very detail oriented clean-up programs.

Well, you know who can help, don't you?

Please remember: Toolbars are forbidden, no matter who
promises what, no matter how tempting the name and no matter who made the tool bar! If you find any toolbars remove them right away.

If you find folders with names from random letters or numbers like for example:pgmfkblbflahhponhjmkcnpjinenhlnc
you have a clear indicator of malicious software.You know who can help, don't you?

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

This is the list of PuPs that I have encountered; it is not comprehensive and it is growing almost daily...

Update February 12th 2014: This list now is 313 entries long and the malware programmers create new names every day. Keeping this list up-to-date has become increasingly time consuming and I will in the future add only well descriptive new names.

A few times customers have asked why they can't watch videos on some web sites. Mostly they suspect Firefox to be the reason because they can see the video clip in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome just fine.

It is not Firefox that blocks the videos, it is something that I install in Firefox that causes this effect. Please bear with me.

Regularly I advise my customers to use Firefox to "go to the Internet", that is for every day web browsing. And I set Firefox up in a way that

Local weather conditions are displayed without installing PUP software.
(PUP stands for Potentially Unwanted Programs; see Wikipedia about mal-ware.)

Much of Google's and Facebook's tracking is done by small programs embedded in many, many web sites. These small programs send information about every step you do on the web to Google, Facebook and third parties, to companies that secretly want to collect this information about you. It is like Big Brother is watching all the time!

Numbers 3 and 4 above are blocking this "secret" transfer of information about what you do on the Internet. Quite a few web sites are programmed in a way that the video is only shown when this communication to the third parties has happened!

All the aforementioned leaves us to decide:

Is this video more important to me than my privacy? (See below.)

If you are NOT on Facebook related content mostly the blocking effect comes from the program behind above number 3; it is called Google Disconnect. When Google Disconnect is active (when you are on a web page that wants to send information to Google) you see in your browser's address bar a red dot with Google's "g" in it. If Facebook Disconnect is active you see a blue dot with Facebook's "f" in it. Here is what it looks like (look for the red oval):

If you decide FOR watching the video then just click on the red "g" dot and then click "Unblock x Google requests" where "x" is the number of requests. The web page will reload and you can watch the video.

And naturally Google (and/or Facebook) will know about your interest in this video.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

I ran across a link to a blog post that may be a good read if you have teenagers of any sex. The post was written to a girl but it equally applies to boys.

This lady says it in a really nice and polite way. Most teenagers just don't believe it, but whatever they put out there will stay out there forever! This one "oh so funny" picture from long gone high school days has in the past and will in the future ruin promising careers, promising relationships and more.

About Me

52 years in Information Technology and 34 years of experience with PCs as of 2016. Specialized in non-destructive virus and malware removal, home computer protection and showing my customers how to keep their computers "mean and clean". From 2004 to 2015 I was the regular computer guru on a local radio call-in talk show. From April 2015 through April 2016 I was bi-wwekly on WBKV 1470AM. I offer only house calls and work exclusively on MS-Windows. I do NOT sell hardware or software, I sell only my know how, my experience and my time.